I'm not a fan of multiclassing Monk and Rogue. Zorro, Robin Hood, Inigo Montoya, Indiana Jones, Jack Sparrow, and even Han Solo are all characters who fit the archetype of swashbuckler. Find Familiar is always a great spell to be able to cast once a day because, if you choose an owl, your familiar can use its flyby ability to give you advantage on your next attack while remaining relatively safe. You dont need advantage on the attack roll to use your Sneak Attack against a creature if you are within 5 feet of it, no other creatures are within 5 feet of you, and you dont have disadvantage on the attack roll. RELATED: The 10 Best Warlock Multiclass Combos In D&D. In particular, the combination of Hexblade warlock and Swashbuckler rogue can be lethal. Roland Drews says: June 10, 2021 at 6:05 am. Swashbuckler. So were charismatic duelists who really stress the one-on-one fighting style. I wish there was a good feat to fill that gap. Touch 4: The Art of Description. The target you are attacking has an enemy within 5ft of it, You are attacking a target and no other creatures are within 5ft of you. Required fields are marked *. One can easily start the game with 16s in DEX, CON, and CHA. Let me start off by saying, Spiderman is a great example of a swashbuckler, although I should probably focus on an easier sell, like Inigo Montoya. One of the later fight scenes is possibly my favorite. Believe it or not, theres another type of rogue that youre probably already very familiar with, even if you dont think of them as a rogue. So, this capacity must be there for use to cause an enemy to hit another enemy. I have further clarified it to only consider the result of the first successful attack, the alternative is to roll all attacks and apply sneak attack to the better result. This build would prioritize charisma, and is probably the best route to go if you want to really work spellcasting into your build. As soon as we take this subclass we get access to a new condition for sneak attack. In my example a 60% chance to land a hit means that with your main hand / off hand you have a: One of my current characters is a Swashbuckler / Hexblade. 55% chance of dealing 1d8+4 (avg 8.5) / 1d8 (avg4.5), 5% chance of dealing 2d8+4 (avg 13) / 2d8 (avg9). Now, as an adult, I aspire to remind people that sometimes a little bit of fantasy is all you need when life gets to be too much. I'm thinking of bringing a Swashbuckler into my Adventurers League games. Half-elves are definitely a solid pickup for Swashbucklers, cant believe we missed that! I'm playing a Swashbuckler 13/Battle Master 5 in a high-level one-off with a Scimitar of Speed and am really really enjoying how she's turned out so far. To me this feels like the classic hero move, getting the big bad to focus on you. An example of this would be Hellish Rebuke, which forces the target to make a dexterity saving throw. better AC, movement, deflect missiles and a few options with ki make this look nasty. Rogue: Swashbuckler. DEX: Swashbucklers, like every rogue subclass, love DEX. Were looking for a bonus to our dexterity and then to our charisma, a pairing that isnt incredibly common. Regarding Alignment. Best is the ability to grapple as a bonus action. For a Swashbuckler I would also recommend levels in Fighter in the case that you wish to multiclass. The DPR from sneak attack is therefore 77% * 4d6 (14) + 7% * 8d6 (28) + 0 = 12.74. The Fighter has a higher "spike" damage with limited ability usage.Uncanny Dodge and Evasion can also reduce a lot of incoming damage. A swashbuckler build would be a complete and utter failure if it was not a fantastic duelist. Insight (WIS) Leave this for a party member with higher wisdom to focus on. Consider it assigned reading. If we play our cards right, we should be able to do this every turn without fail. This new condition completely changes the dynamic of sneak attack. Which means you should get 5d6 sneak attack. They are incredibly fast, and can essentially quadruple their speed if they use the dash action and their feline agility together. 4. My only complain is that Investigation (INT) checks to detect traps are terrible and have no bonus, which sucks when you are also the scout (because Rogue.) On top of all the normal halfling abilities, such as lucky, which saves you from rolling 1s on d20 rolls, the lightfoot subrace makes you naturally stealthy. Well, the swashbuckler introduces a new condition; if you are within 5 feet of your target, no other creatures are within 5 feet of you, and you dont have disadvantage on the attack roll, you can make a sneak attack. Use your Panashe action to taunt the enemy (and win (they are now at a disadvantage to hit anyone but you)) Brawling goes very well with Rouge swashbuckling and sailor. I think the fighter multiclass also fits the theme well. Half-Elf does make a pretty good Swashbuckler, but then Half-Elves make pretty good everything, especially charisma based characters. So make sail, dawn your feathered cap, and gear up as many one-liners as you need, this is going to be a great character for you. Do I double my proficiency into Persuasion or not? Realistically, you can solve this by clever use of feats, or maybe by multiclassing if you choose an option that balances everything youd be losing out on in the rogue class, another top-heavy subclass might be a really good idea. Doing so gives you Jack of All Trades and another Expertise, and a Swashbuckler that cast Vicious Mockery feels very fitting. This can be great, even if youre not an evil character. Instead of having to have an ally within 5ft OR have advantage on the roll, Swashbucklers can use their sneak attack feature whenever they are within 5ft of the enemy and there are no other creatures within 5ft of you. Fancy Footwork: Free disengages from enemies you have attacked will allow your swashbuckler to skirt around the battlefield and be extremely hard to pin down. Some hear the name Swashbuckler and think pirate, and while that is a perfectly reasonable direction . Expertise: Refer to the 5e Rogue Guide. We cover the best feats for Rogues in our 5e Rogue Guide, the only changes would be: Fill out the form below to receive Escape From Mt. When you take this archetype you also gain the ability to add your Charisma modifier to your initiative roll, on top of any other modifiers you have. While we still want to look for good skill proficiencies, we can put a little more focus into other features that a background can provide us for. Splitting the difference between our 9th and 13th level features, we can pick up Defensive Duelist for a boost to our AC while were using our finesse weapons. Combine this with their buffed sneak attack and Swashbucklers will commonly find themselves dancing around the battlefield, sneak attacking to their hearts content. Thanks for reply. This is an ability that you have to be creative to use. I recommend at least 5 levels for Extra Attack, which if you are two-weapon fighting as per the intent of the subclass, that gives you three attacks per round to land Sneak Attack. Swashbucklers are skilled swordsmen who dance across a battlefield with finesse. Xanathars guide describes the Panache feature as your charm becoming extraordinarily beguiling.. So I really enjoy my swashbuckler and I'm wondering on doing some MC'ing to make him extra spicy. If you are wielding a light weapon in each hand you can use a bonus action as an offhand attack (using your non-dominant hand to make an attack, you cant add your ability score modifier to the damage though). Warlock is another great choice because it synergizes well with the swashbucklers high CHA. Proficiencies: Refer to the 5e Rogue Guide. So long as you are not incapacitated, no attack roll has advantage against you. I guess this would only work if the other party . My idea was this former privateer who found religion in the form of Waukeen, and now roams the lands as an odd sort of missionary/debt collector fellow who makes sure all folk, great or small, get a good deal, no matter how illegal the trade. If you want to emphasis your mouthy theme, go with College of Lore to pick up Cutting Words and more proficiencies never hurt. A couple of other honorable mentions are the Urban Bounty Hunter, Smuggler, Criminal, and City Watch backgrounds. Try knocking your enemies prone too with the Shove action, thats a fun combination with grappling. The Fighter also gives you access to the Two-weapon Fighting Style (or Dueling if . Pirate Proficiency in Athletics and Persuasion. Their Fancy Footwork ability allows them to disengage from a target for free they made a melee attack against it. On a failed save, the target would normally take 2d10 fire damage, and a successful save would take half. From it, I see that my feats are going to tied up until at least 12 level. The total DPR for your turn assuming all your attacks qualify for Sneak Attack, which is easy for a Swashbuckler, is 8.25 + 12.74 = 20.99. Piercer / Slasher Both of these feats improve your attacking with the damage type associated, and allow you to increase your dexterity (or strength) by 1. 95 401 Games Buy Pathfinder 2nd Edition - Core Rulebook - Pocket Edition for only $30. Deception (CHA) Of the charisma options, this is one of our least likely choices. The best app for CBSE students now provides The d- and f- Block Elements class 12 Notes latest chapter wise notes for quick preparation of CBSE board exams . The species of animal you choose is called your companion's type. It doesnt have to be, but it can become pretty annoying. Swashbucklers dance . Basically, you either have advantage on them or being near an ally (the enemy of my enemy is my friend logic) lets you get a sneak attack in. Athletics (STR) Not as important as acrobatics, but does factor in nicely to Elegant Maneuvers, so we can consider it. You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background: Choose two proficiencies that you have, either in skills or thieves tools. If you miss with an attack roll, you can roll it again with advantage. Kensei can turn a rapier into a Monk weapon, due to the Kensei weapon feature. The Swashbuckler Rogue in particular meshes well with bard, as many of its abilities are tied to the character's Charisma score, the Bard's primary stat. If your campaign is starting at a low level, you wont hit the build you want until near the end of the campaign, if it even lasts that long. You can't rely on that for damage output, but the Sneak Attack will help a lot. and the Subclass. I mean, a 5th level swashbuckler using booming blade on a rapier is going to deal 1d8 (weapon) +3d6 (sneak) +1d8 (cantrip) for a total possible 34, with potentially another 2d8 coming in after the attack. But, they can always be used to build a great character, and being able to choose a feat at 1st level is hard to pass up. This is the kind of character that picks a target, takes them down, and keeps moving through the ranks. 0.55*8.5 + 0.05*13 + 0 = 5.325and 0.55*4.5 + 0.05*9 + 0 = 2.925 for a total of 8.25. Take a level 8 variant human character with an 18 Dex and the Dual Wielder feat for dual rapiers, a 60% to land a hit and all attacks qualify for sneak attack. Thats where speed, elegance, and charm come in. Variant Human: +1 DEX and +1 CHA is a decent base for Swashbucklers. Sticking with Swash allows for an additional ASI. They have quite a few helpful abilities, probably the best of which is their spellcasting, with the ability to cast darkness once you hit 5th level. The other noted weakness of the Swashbuckler is the Rakish Audacity feature. Spies, thieves, assassins, these are the archetypes that I picture whenever someone mentions a rogue, be it D&D or not. Martial Adept The maneuvers of the battle master fighter subclass are a very natural mix with the swashbuckler, allowing you to pull off impressive stunts during combat. You get to pick up Booming Blade, Eldritch Blast, and Hex, all of which are great spells for the swashbuckler. Influence on Social Situations. As a follow-up.Every lvl that isn't Roguesacrificesd3 of Sneak Attack, plus all the other good features!I say a d3, because ever 2 lvls of Rogue is 1d6 Sneak Attack. Basically, if were choosing to start casting spells, we want to be able to do as much as we can. Is it another option for cunning action? Is that something specific? Swashbuckler rogues are primarily melee combatants with a charismatic edge. Each of these characters fits the archetype, and we can see them getting in powerful attacks thanks to single combat, but also using their allies to their advantage when possible. Im thinking he will love to sneak attack and has high stealth and athletics. Going single weapon with a Rapier as my Kensai weapon. Variant Human +1 two abilities of your choice (DEX and CHA). This allows Swashbucklers to be a bit more autonomous than a normal rogue. Published on October 26, 2020, Last modified on February 20th, 2023. If you want to multiclass Rogue with Warlock then Hexblade is the way to go and you can ignore eldritch blast. Going Dex/Wisdom/Charisma, just need a campaign to play her in :). Learn how your comment data is processed. What I love is the variety that comes with this kind of a move. Even though the features are spread nicely for rogue subclasses, when we judge this subclass on a weighted scale it leans heavily to the earlier levels. Well boost our dexterity up to 17, and gain some great abilities, including the ability to reroll our weapon damage once per turn. Normally, a rogue either needs advantage against their target, or for their target to be within 5 feet of another enemy of the target, not incapacitated, and to not have disadvantage on them. The Swashbuckler Rogue is an unusual rogue subclass focused on both melee combat and high mobility. 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